AEI Music Classical Chamber Propac #5590 1999 4-track mono audio cassette (medium tempo) (catalogue)
Audio Preview
(NOTE: I have moved the Mike Brady information here. It made more sense to put it at the start of the collection rather than in the middle.)
A relaxing and pleasantly low-key programme of light-classical chamber pieces, focussing on acoustic guitar. This would probably be another good one for quiet dinner gatherings or backpacking, perhaps alongside Classical/Piano #4306.
Speed correction was -26.75% using two songs as key time references, by comparing against the same songs downloaded from Youtube. No restoration, EQ or noise reduction was done on this transfer. The audio has been split into separate mono tracks for this presentation. The audio is of reasonably high quality and is fairly dynamic (AEI did use companding on the source audio, as is typical procedure for most business music systems), with surprisingly good high-frequency response and low noise, so it was likely a well cared-for, low-hours tape that wasn't played to death like some of the others. There is a small amount of print-through from having being in storage for over 20 years, possibly in a metal cabinet or near a magnetic object. For the most part it isn't noticeable except in the bands between selections and the track headers/tails.
Select to view full-sized playlist.
(Feel free to gloss over this paragraph if you want.) Like the piano tape, the A-side (tracks 1/3) strangely ended up a few seconds longer than B (2/4). I always cut tape transfers "splice-to-splice" when processing in Audacity so in theory both sides of a tape *should* be of to-the-second equal length. In reality, the mechanical dynamics of analogue audio tapes means they rarely are. I suspect there was a sticky point on the tape that had worked its way out on the first pass (though I haven't noticed it in the audio) since side 2 is the proper length. 5590 and the piano tape were stored mid-tape, not fully wound to the leader and the edges of the exposed magnetic tape were curling under slightly from storage. I strongly suspect that is its stumbling point that self-resolved after being reformed by pre-playback fast-winding and A-side playback...... if that makes any sense. (Yeah.... okay.) I actually transferred this one before Background Instrumental, Contemporary Instrumental 5591, Red Lobster and Piano, and of those the former three processed to more or less the correct length; therefore we can probably rule out equipment trouble and blame the tape stock itself, or the cartridge's mechanical impedance.
Notes
DOWNLOADING
When downloading this recording e.g. for local listening or to post elsewhere, please select only the original high-bitrate PCM ("WAVE" option) files. The lossy MP3 files for immediate previewing in the built-in Web player above were encoded from the PCM files using LAME 3.99.5 Linux (command $ lame -b128 -mm -o -q0 "'filename.wav]") but for optimal listening please download and use the PCM version. The FLAC files listed are Archive's own autoderivatives and cannot provide technical support if you download them. Master files are encoded as 44100 Hz 16-bit linear PCM (RIFF header). The unprocessed tape-in files are also provided for reference.
To stream this programme as a sequence in an external media player (e.g. VLC), open the "VBR M3U" file in your player's playlist editor and select "play". To stream individual files, load the file you want from the "WAVE" option into your player directly.
LICENCE
For private listening (home/headphones/car) and historical-interest uses only. If you want to play this music in a business, you will need to contact Mood Media and set up a subscription.
A relaxing and pleasantly low-key programme of light-classical chamber pieces, focussing on acoustic guitar. This would probably be another good one for quiet dinner gatherings or backpacking, perhaps alongside Classical/Piano #4306.
Speed correction was -26.75% using two songs as key time references, by comparing against the same songs downloaded from Youtube. No restoration, EQ or noise reduction was done on this transfer. The audio has been split into separate mono tracks for this presentation. The audio is of reasonably high quality and is fairly dynamic (AEI did use companding on the source audio, as is typical procedure for most business music systems), with surprisingly good high-frequency response and low noise, so it was likely a well cared-for, low-hours tape that wasn't played to death like some of the others. There is a small amount of print-through from having being in storage for over 20 years, possibly in a metal cabinet or near a magnetic object. For the most part it isn't noticeable except in the bands between selections and the track headers/tails.
Select to view full-sized playlist.
(Feel free to gloss over this paragraph if you want.) Like the piano tape, the A-side (tracks 1/3) strangely ended up a few seconds longer than B (2/4). I always cut tape transfers "splice-to-splice" when processing in Audacity so in theory both sides of a tape *should* be of to-the-second equal length. In reality, the mechanical dynamics of analogue audio tapes means they rarely are. I suspect there was a sticky point on the tape that had worked its way out on the first pass (though I haven't noticed it in the audio) since side 2 is the proper length. 5590 and the piano tape were stored mid-tape, not fully wound to the leader and the edges of the exposed magnetic tape were curling under slightly from storage. I strongly suspect that is its stumbling point that self-resolved after being reformed by pre-playback fast-winding and A-side playback...... if that makes any sense. (Yeah.... okay.) I actually transferred this one before Background Instrumental, Contemporary Instrumental 5591, Red Lobster and Piano, and of those the former three processed to more or less the correct length; therefore we can probably rule out equipment trouble and blame the tape stock itself, or the cartridge's mechanical impedance.
Notes
DOWNLOADING
When downloading this recording e.g. for local listening or to post elsewhere, please select only the original high-bitrate PCM ("WAVE" option) files. The lossy MP3 files for immediate previewing in the built-in Web player above were encoded from the PCM files using LAME 3.99.5 Linux (command $ lame -b128 -mm -o -q0 "'filename.wav]") but for optimal listening please download and use the PCM version. The FLAC files listed are Archive's own autoderivatives and cannot provide technical support if you download them. Master files are encoded as 44100 Hz 16-bit linear PCM (RIFF header). The unprocessed tape-in files are also provided for reference.
To stream this programme as a sequence in an external media player (e.g. VLC), open the "VBR M3U" file in your player's playlist editor and select "play". To stream individual files, load the file you want from the "WAVE" option into your player directly.
LICENCE
For private listening (home/headphones/car) and historical-interest uses only. If you want to play this music in a business, you will need to contact Mood Media and set up a subscription.
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